Orient Myself

I know this ship like the back of my hand, but take a glance at the data-panel on the wall for a refresher. There's a convenient ship map applet, allowing me to view the layout of the ship at various levels. I tap Deck 1, which pulls up an interactive map. I scroll through each deck, confirming that no systems have been replaced or rearranged, and that everything is functioning as intended:

Deck 1 is where I'm currently standing, in Personal Quarters #1. Leigh stays in the #2 room with the nice view, aunt Danielle stays in #3 which has the fancier bathroom, and Vivian stays in the Captain's quarters, giving a grand view along with easy access to the Bridge if need be. The Bridge is the heart of the entire ship, giving piloting controls, jump systems, comms, the sensor array, and a plethora of other controls. The common area sports a television, couches, and other amenities you would expect in a common living room. The kitchen is a bit of a relic, most consider replicated food to be just fine, but mom insists on home-cooked meals, at least every once in a while. I do have to admit, the labor going into making your own food pays off in its own way, and often does taste at least a little better than replicated food. While not shown on the maps, each room is separated by air-tight bulkheads.

If Deck 1 is the brain of the vessel, Deck 2 is the heart. All of our food, fresh water, oxygen, medical needs, and pretty much anything else can owe its existence to this deck. Hydroponics is where Leigh spends most of her working hours when we're occupying The Arden, oddly caring quite a bit for her plants, something I wish she's do a bit more for her fellow humans. The seed vault is vital to emergency terraforming or growing additional food in case something goes wrong, and is kept locked up tight at all times. The med bay is rarely utilized outside of normal checkups and such, but is such a necessity in case of emergency that almost no ship goes without one. The rest of the rooms are generally automated and quite technical, although I am very familiar with them when they break down or need maintenance.

Deck 3 is where the fun is at, if it's not clear from the map. The swimming pool in particular gets a lot of love from everyone on-board, although the theater is a close runner up in terms of popularity. While it's true we could all just watch movies and shows in our rooms or even on a holo-scope, the authentic theater experience just feels warm and cozy. Danielle and myself spend quite a bit of time at the gym, and my sister is keen on the hot-tub. The library is basically a virtualization of humanity's knowledge, allowing almost anything to be quickly learned. The term is an out-dated one, but "library" just rolls off the tongue, so that's what it's called. The holodeck is probably self-explanatory, it's a sensory enabled holographic interactivity center loaded with almost any scenario you could think of. I find it equally as useful for solving engineering conundrums as I do hardcore porn, when I'm certain privacy is a guarantee, that is.

Deck 4 is likely the most mundane deck, and is the deck I've entered The Arden on. The Mass Storage facility contains almost anything too complex for a matter replicator, tons of supplies for colonization, and any supplies that would be needed to repair almost anything on the ship in the event of an emergency. The cargo bay is the only non-emergency exit from the ship, and contains the mobile exploration vehicle (MEV), a small rover used to traverse long distances or rough terrain. The suit storage room is just that; storage for space, diving, and hazard suits. The genetic backups rooms is the best equivalent of a human black-box current science could come up with: every day a backup is made of each of our physiologies, consciousnesses, and other properties. In the event of a non-natural death, like an accident, the backup is uploaded to the nearest cloning facility where a clone will be approved for production. A very scary thought, but the hope being that no one can truly die before their time. Cloning has come to the point of producing perfect copies of human beings, even down to the smallest detail, with clones not even realizing they are artificial. However, due to the obvious issues with this system, cloning outside of non-natural (old age, natural diseases such as cancer after a certain age, etc.) deaths is strictly prohibited and controlled to prevent over population, or there being two of a single person. Hasn't stopped criminals or rich assholes in the past, but it's so well regulated now that it's not really a concern.